Freshening Up The Foyer

Come on in and let’s have a walkabout. But not one of those wildlife walkabouts, just a jaunt around the foyer since we haven’t properly introduced you to many of the updates in here. I’d describe this room’s evolution over the last year or so as just generally lightening things up (thanks to switching out an old dark foyer table and the dark slate floor) and layering in some more tone-on-tone texture (in the new light fixture, mirror, and woven baskets). So let’s break it down with a whole bunch of pics, shall we? Safari hat: optional.

Actually just for fun, here’s a before shot from a similar angle:

And back to the after again. Ahhh.

Before you stop to wonder about the scenery/terrain on this journey around the foyer, the walls are Edgecomb Gray by Benjamin Moore, the trim is Simply White by Benjamin Moore, the ceiling is Revere Pewter (a slightly deeper gray-taupe color than the walls – more on that here) and the floors are just oak hardwoods with Provincial stain by Minwax. We also stained the handrail a dark color to go with the black and white stair runner (more on that here) and I think that covers all of the general paint/stain stuff going on in this space.

Some of you guys noticed that our star light is at the beach house now. Over time we realized it was a smidge too big for our 8′ foyer, so we had to urgently scream “watch your head!” at our tallest guests right as they stepped in the door (how rude). The star light is definitely a lot better off at the beach house since the ceilings are a foot higher on the first floor there (so even someone pushing 7′ wouldn’t have to worry about hitting their head), and since everyone who has spied our new light fixture in the background of an Instagram photo or something has asked about it, allow me to formally introduce you.

I’m clearly the world’s largest fan of capiz, so this chandelier had my name ALLLL over it. The lighter and softer vibe it brings to this small space feels really fresh and lovely, and the gold finish looks awesome with the woven blinds that we have on all the first floor windows (which you can see in three different adjoining rooms as you stand in the foyer). You can kind of see what I mean in the blurry shot above.

The mirror also hails from Serena and Lily and if you listen to the podcast, this is the one I talked about (in this episode) that I stalked FOR YEARS and was finally able to stack some sales and coupon codes to snag it for over 50% off. I think it was around $320 in the end, which is still a ton of money for a mirror in my book, but I make heart eyes at it every time I walk by. And get this: IT SOLD OUT AFTER THAT!!! As in, that was the lowest closeout price they ever offered and then it was gone and never stocked again.

This happened over a year ago and I still look to see if it’s back, but no dice, which is a good reminder that something you’ve loved for years can just up and disappear and then you might find yourself reenacting that scene from Titanic (sniff… “I’ll never let go, Jack”… sniff) so in this case I’m SO GLAD I monitored those sales and finally pounced when the price dropped so dramatically. Psst- for anyone looking for something similar, this mirror and this mirror are somewhat close.

The table is also no longer sold but it’s super similar to this one, and here are some similar baskets. At any given time our woven baskets can be found full of dress up clothes, stuffed animals, or the bottom two-thirds of a kid (picture a head popping out and me laughing hysterically).

The big glass jar is from here and it comes in handy for holiday decorating – like this annual Easter Tree that we make with a cut branch from the yard and some small little colorful egg ornaments. The sweater-wearing vase is no longer sold, but these are kind of similar (these are really cool knitted pot covers too) and I am so OBSESSED with my faux ginkgo branch that there’s another one in a vase in the kitchen. I love that the warm yellow color is great for fall, but it’s so cheerful it’ll look just as good in the spring/summer.

Oh and because this foyer has two closets (you can see the other one in the last photo of this post, which is our coat closet), we made this one super functional by turning it into a toy & game closet. Just adding one of those track-shelving systems (like this) has been awesome over the last four years of living here.

It’s really nice to have such a centrally located toy storage space downstairs, and when people see our living room with just two toy baskets flanking the TV they always say “where are all the toys?!?” so we throw open this closet door for the big reveal. We still have way fewer toys than we used to (you can hear what drove us to get rid of half of them in this podcast episode) but the things in this closet are in heavy rotation. Upstairs we also obviously have some toys/games on that level (in the built-ins in the bonus room for example, and in the kids’ rooms themselves).

Oh and the colorful art on the wall next to the door is by the amazing Teil Duncan (you can find some of her stuff here, here or here) and the door is painted Blue Lake by Benjamin Moore on both sides. That kids portrait you can barely make out in the photo below is discussed a lot more in this post (it’s one of our favorite things ever!) and that post also shouts out a ton of artists we love at the bottom – including many who sell original art on Etsy that is awesomely affordable.

And since I was in a mood boarding mood, I made this little “get the look” collage for anyone who is thinking about trying the same thing in their foyer (the light + mirror + colorful art thing would be really pretty in a bathroom too!).

So thanks for coming on this little indoor-and-not-very-exotic walkabout. I apologize for the lack of giraffes, but I really did enjoy showing you around.

Psst- For anyone still wondering about sources, like the office chairs and stuff that you can see in the background of this post, here’s a full house source page that has all of our paint colors and stuff we bought.